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Organizer says tension in metro council bolstering St. George movement

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BATON ROUGE - The decision from some EBR metro council members to vote against filling Buddy Amoroso's seat may be helping the proposed city of St. George.

Lionel Rainey with the St. George movement claims that Tuesday's shakeup in the metro council has prompted more people to want to leave the city.

"That's the exact reason why people had signed the St. George petition and for a lot of people, they took a look at this and they're just disgusted by it," Rainey said.

Following councilman Buddy Amoroso's death and subsequent empty council seat, democratic council members Chauna Banks, LaMont Cole, Donna Collins-Lewis, and Erika Green announced that they would not be voting for any replacements.

"Buddy had been buried 4 days before this stunt, this purely political stunt," Rainey said.

According to Rainey, in the last 24 hours since the four democratic council members said they wouldn't be voting to fill the seat, 70 to 80 people have requested to sign the petition to join St. George.

Also on Tuesday, Chauna Banks tweeted specifically about St. George, saying "Choosing a progressive democrat to fill the vacant district 8 council seat would be a tremendous blow to the St. George effort."

But Rainey says their move has had the opposite effect, prompting more people to want to join.

"It is emblematic of the problems that we face with the leadership in this parish and the city as a whole and it's why so many people are so excited about the possibility of a new city."

The St. George movement has until November to get the 13,000 signatures it needs to advance. Last month we reported it still needed about 3,000 more supporters.